“If you want to walk on water, first you have to step out of the boat” – Carol Allen

“If you’re a super busy person, give yourself reasonable, attainable goals, keep them visible throughout the year, and chip away at them tactic by tactic until you’ve nailed the goal!” – Annemarie O’Brien

“Write because you love to do it. Because you have to do it. Because you love words and story and losing yourself to that amazing place where story happens. That’s how the very best books are born.” – Sue LaNeve

“You will forget what it took to write the last book. This is a blessing and a curse. Use the blessing of forgetfulness to be brave about taking on a new project. Banish the curse of forgetfulness by reminding yourself that the struggle is totally normal.” – Rachel M. Wilson

I don’t usually write to music. It distracts me, but I do write with it. I have favorite music for getting into moods, connecting with characters, or inspiring story.

I credit my songwriter friend, John Elliott, and his music for inspiring this post. I’ve written with his music many times, and his new indie album Good Goodbyes released Tuesday. When John invited me to write a review of his album, I told him I don’t know anything about reviewing music. I do know I love this album, that it’s evocative and inspiring, and I’m excited to try writing with it soon.

Here are some ideas for writing with music, even if you’re not fond of playing it while you write.

Make playlists for a range of emotions and tones that you can listen to before diving into scenes.

If you don’t want to invest time in creating your own playlist, choose one song and see what playlist iTunes Genius or Pandora or a similar service creates for you.

Make a Pandora radio station for a character. Input a few of the character’s favorite songs and discover other songs they might like. Sometimes, the lyrics of songs discovered this way have led me to theme and story in surprising ways.

Choose a song lyric as a thematic touchstone. Paste the quotation at the top of your manuscript, whether or not you intend to quote it in the finished book.

Once you have a rough outline, find a song to represent each point on it. Listen to the songs together as a soundtrack and see if you learn anything new about your story.

Listen to a song with evocative lyrics and jot down the lines that stand out to you. See what happens if you try to write a story around those lines.

Find a song or music video that inspires you. Songs and music videos are so often like poetry, containing signposts of story but open to interpretation. Your own interpretation might become an original plot. Two music vids that always inspire me are Beirut’s “Postcards from Italy” and the Raveonettes “Dead Sound.” The latter has majorly helped me get into the mood for my current WIP.

If you’re up for a kick-in-the-pants, do-it-right-now challenge, try the one of the last two exercises with this video of John Elliott’s “Back Where I Was” set to a single thunderstorm. I recommend making the video full screen. Share a bit of your exercise or let us know how it worked for you in comments!

You can hear samples of tracks from more of John’s work and see more videos of his songs here.

In June, I shared some thoughts about creating happiness, citing Edward Hallowell’s cyclical program of connecting, playing, practicing, achieving mastery, and receiving recognition.

Recently, I’ve been taken with this series of videos, produced by SoulPancake about the science of happiness — and it’s not just because of the introductory graphic of the happiness laboratory, though I really love the guy on the hamster wheel.

The point of this video is that we are better problem solvers when we are happy. Having a plot problem? Give yourself some positive reinforcement, then try tackling it again.

This video shows us one way to “get happy,” and it has to do with showing our gratitude.

So, today, I’m going to be grateful for those people who have helped me on my writing journey, and I’m going to tell them. Then I’m going to get to work.

“If I diminish other people’s perceptions, do I diminish them? Not just their arguments. Them.”

Were this a critical essay, I’d offer a premise, confirm or refute it by essay end, and do so in a hopefully convincing, interesting and structurally sound way.

Spoiler alert.

These 539 words are nothing of the sort. A family member’s perception of an event spurred this exploration. I have no clue where I’m going with it or what I’m trying to say.

Perception. Perception. Perception. Hmmm. Maybe start with Point of View?

Say I’m the narrator in a story told in first-person present tense. There is that point of view rule that discourages mindreading, unless of course your narrator has the gift of telepathy, x-ray vision or perhaps hears voices.

This is not to say I can’t be a gifted narrator who is capable of sensing thought or emotion. But since I can’t actually slip inside another character’s mind, I might note my perception as an inference with clarifiers such as “it seems like” “my guess is” (fill in the blank).

Why is it, then, that in real life, in moments of self-doubt, I rarely clarify an inference? I’m instantly omniscient. I emphatically tell others precisely what they are doing or thinking or feeling. “You are not listening to me;” “You don’t want to read this,” “I am boring you;” “You are screening my calls;” “You don’t think I’m doing what I want to be doing,” etc., etc., ad nauseam.

I’m guessing I’m not alone in this tendency.

One writer, Jeff Goins, who blogged about truth and fiction, said, “Every day, we lie to ourselves to avoid facing the discomfort of our anxiety, hurt, and betrayal (just to name a few feelings).”

Sounds like survival tactics to me.

I would pile on Jeff’s notion and say, “Every day, we create truths that project or blame our emotional discomfort about ourselves, about our perceived betrayal, hurt or anxiety by others on others.”

If I were a computer possessing no historical data from which to draw conclusions, I could describe that moment factually. Instead, I am human with petabytes of data stored from even before birth that will distort or clarify or perhaps even amplify said moment.

Intellectual data—my skill sets, values, education, and experience;
Personality filters—am I introverted or extroverted, analytical or a sensor, insecure or confident?
Physical and emotional filters, both historical and immediate, which affect my current mood.

But here’s the rub. Even though my perceptions are filtered, not “just the facts” and likely not the pure “truth,” they are real to me and they are uniquely mine.

So do my perceptions define me? Or does my self define my perceptions?

Eh. Who cares. It just leads me to my real question:

If I diminish other people’s perceptions, do I diminish them? Not just their arguments. Them.

If I had a super power, I’d choose to ACTUALLY see the world through the eyes of anyone I choose.

But I don’t. The best I can do is to respect how they see it.

It may not be the pure truth, but it’s their truth.

539 words. Minutes you will never recover. How do you perceive this rambling?

You spend the school year feeding your tribe. It seems like all you do is pack lunches and make dinners.

But that’s not entirely true—you also spend a great deal of time in the car and quizzing math facts and helping create a whale-on-stilts costume. You attend concerts and track meets and recitals and musicals and field trips.

And you write. You revise. You revise some more. You revise until you’re sick of revising.

By the end of the year, you are drained. Bone-dry drained. Nothing left drained. Drain-o drained.

You need to feed your soul.

So you go to Istanbul. You see the Hagia Sophia. You see the Blue Mosque. You visit a Turkish bath. You eat something called “The Imam Fainted.” You climb a mountain and visit a monastery. You bike around an island.

You go to Greece. You see the Parthenon. You visit the Delphic Oracle. You climb to more monasteries. You swim in the Aegean sea.

You loved Istanbul and you loved Greece, but you come home and still feel drained. Drained and jet-lagged.

So you go to Vermont to visit your alma mater. You hug dozens of people. You meet new friends. You give a reading. You talk shop. You go to lectures.

You love VCFA and you love your writer buddies, but you come home and still feel drained. Drained with a whole lotta laundry to do.

So you go to your in-law’s camp, a place with no wifi, no cell phone reception, no television, no cable. You canoe, you hike through the woods, you build bonfires and create the consummate s’more.

But when you come home, guess what? You still feel drained. But at least you have hot water again.

You do laundry and repack, this time for a yearly tradition: WTHS, the What the H(eck) Sabbatical.

Karen, Beth, Heather, Ginger, Frauke, Joy, Lisa

There are occasions when you need an unknown something, and no one but a sister will do. Though you only have one biological sister, you were lucky enough to pick up six more along the way, sisters with a varied and long history joined by parentage, schooling, marriage, and friendship.

And once a year, you check in.

Lisa, Heather, Joy, Karen, Beth, Frauke, Ginger

You see your sisters on the second weekend of August, the weekend of WTHS. It is a weekend sans husband and children in which the answer to any question is “What the h(eck)!” It is a weekend in which you doff sense, and don sensibility.

“Do I want ice cream for breakfast?” What the h(eck)!

“Should I buy these shoes?” What the h(eck)!

“One dessert or two?” What the h(eck)!

Heather, Joy, Ginger, Frauke, Karen

This weekend is no span of simple gluttony; you also wear tiaras. You carry wands. You laugh. You laugh some more. You laugh until you cry. In fact, one of you is an academically trained humor specialist and comedian. You laugh until it becomes an aerobic activity, and you can justify that ice cream for breakfast.

You return home and you no longer feel drained. And it doesn’t matter how much laundry you have to do, because you have a tiara and a magic wand, and maybe it’ll just get done all by itself.

Participants in the AMR were treated to sessions with visiting author and founding faculty member of the WCYA program, Graham “Sandy” Salisbury. As part of his message, Sandy regaled us with a multitude of funny and touching stories relating to his research, his writing process, and his years growing up in Hawaii. He concluded his remarks with some thoughtful questions to help us consider the greater good we can do in our roles as writers.

Leonard Marcus gave a fascinating presentation on the exhibit he curated at the New York Public Library entitled “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter.” The exhibit explores the evolution of ideas of childhood through literary artifacts, and includes such things as a copy of the Boston primer, a photo of Alice (for whom Alice in Wonderland was written), as well as a full-size great green room from Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon. (An audible sigh arose from the audience as he showed that slide!) The exhibit runs through March 23, 2014 and is free of charge.

A debut author panel highlighted the recently-released and upcoming books by Carol Brendler (Radio Girl, coming September 5th from Holiday House), our own Annemarie O’Brien (Lara’s Gift, coming August 6th from Knopf), Nicole Griffin (The Whole Stupid Way We Are, out now from Atheneum), Amy Rose Capetta (Entangled, coming October 1st from Houghton Mifflin), and Cori McCarthy (The Color of Rain out now from Running Press). Each author discussed what they learned from writing their books. Cori McCarthy’s notable answer involved the process of writing her novel and DELETING THE WHOLE THING (a la Cynthia Leitich Smith) multiple times, because it was not going in the direction her agent wanted. Pretty much the only thing that stayed the same was her protagonist and the design of the space ship.

The weekend was rounded out with three sessions of alumni readings, a BBQ on the green, a Q&A with the publishing professionals, and an auction hosted by Tim Wynne-Jones and Coe Booth. The auction raised $7,100 and included critiques by Margaret Bechard which sold for $700, and a set of hand-stitched Fern, Vonetta, and Delphine dolls made by Rita Williams-Garcia selling for $650.

So what’s new at VCFA? Sadly, Julie Larios and Leda Schubert have retired. Though Leda made an appearance during the AMR, each will be sorely missed on faculty. New faculty A.S. King and Garret Freymann-Weyr have signed on. Current enrollment is at a high with 103 students registered. The recent Giving Week raised over $15,000 for the school, with 39% participation from the students and alumni of the Writing for Children and Young Adults program. To show appreciation, Matthew Monk, Academic Dean and founding faculty chair of the Graphic Design program designed a book plate in honor of the generosity of the WCYA alumni. The bookplates have been placed in a collection of Graham Salisbury’s books and donated to Gary Library.

Many thanks to the staff and volunteers who made this weekend possible. Participants left recharged and grateful to have reconnected with so many friends and alumni.

That might not have happened at all, and certainly not so quickly, without social media. But as Kameron Hurley says:

Well, welcome to 2013. And the world wide web, where everybody, even those underprivileged nobodies you never had to listen to before, has a chance to be heard.

Unfortunately, speaking out often comes along with consequences. Ann Aguirre posted yesterday about the sexism she’s encountered in the SFF world, and she’s already receiving hate mail in response, which can be found at the end of her post. As she warns, it’s harsh and could be triggering.

Anita Sarkeesian is one of my heroes, and she’s endured an online campaign of misogyny, bullying, and hacking. Between reminders of that and reading snippets from the SWFA bulletin, I fell into a (thankfully brief and mild) depression.

One tweet that has stuck with me from these past few days is Justine Larbelestier’s in response to the SWFA hubbub:

(She was in the midst of calling out an ill-informed article (book promo) titled “How to Write a Feminist Young Adult Novel” in Jezebel, and she wasn’t alone, but you’ll have to visit to Twitter for more on that …)

And here’s another heartening one, from Justine Larbelestier:

And because I'm depressing everyone: the difference now is that many people speak out about it. We fight back. There are other discourses.

Change is slow, but it is change. Social media opens the door to rants and trolls and bullying and harassment, but it also provides a forum for conversation, for calling out poor choices, and for empowering young people.

And any “nobody” can join the conversation. So participate. Pay attention. Be critical. Listen. Stay positive. Share.

I adore Carol Lynch Williams. She is not only a talented and prolific writer, but an amazing woman with a wicked sense of humor, and a fine alto to boot. (I know this because I got to sit next to her in church one Sunday during our VCFA residencies). Following graduation, she has continued to write (a lot), teach (a lot), and mentor (a lot) all while mothering her five daughters. And did I mention she blogs?

Recently, Carol answered some questions about the conference, her work, and life in general.

Tell us about the WIFYR conference? What makes it special?

Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers is all about helping those who want to write and publish for kids and young adults. Our goal is to help your work become publishable — and not just that great first chapter. The conference — which lasts a week long — has all kinds of classes. For example, we have a class if you are struggling with those icky middles, one if your novel is completed and needs fine tuning, one that addressees the first 50 pages of work. There’s an illustrator class and, if you don’t have all day, you can sign up just for the afternoon sessions.

How long have you been running the conference? What made you decide to initiate it?

Many years ago a good friend of mine, Chris Crowe (Mississippi Trial, 1955 and Getting Away with Murder, just to name a few of his books) called me up. “If you could go to any kind of writing conference,” he said, “what would it be like? What is your dream writing conference?” Chris and I started dreaming together. We’d want editors and agents there. We’d have classes, led by published authors and illustrators. We’d keep those classes small, intimate. We’d focus on craft, on becoming better, stronger writers. We’d have afternoon sessions all about craft.

Our keynote is Lance Larson, Utah’s Poet Laurette. The keynote is free to the public.

There is a great closing social, lots of give-aways, and a book signing.

What is most exciting about this conference is that our faculty WANT to help you publish. I am already communicating with members of my class about Boot Camp. They will be doing homework long before we meet, and that week we will work hard, too. And laugh and have fun and improve.

What can a first-time attendee expect?

To be exhausted by the time the week is over. You’ll be working hard the whole week, with about 40 hours of work (including time in morning classes, afternoon sessions, and homework). If you are the faint of heart, this isn’t the conference for you. You can also expect to walk out knowing more about yourself as a writer, more about your writing, more about what makes GOOD writing and that you can do this! You can publish!

What’s new with Carol the Writer? What’s in the pipeline for you?

Let’s see — I have a series for early readers coming out from a new publisher. The first two books, GEORGE AND GRACIE, JUST IN TIME will debut with Familius Publishing this fall.

Next year I have two non-fiction books coming out, plus THE HAVEN (which is my dystopian novel) and a happy book (finally) from Paula Wiseman Imprints. THE HAVEN is released in the spring. Not sure about the Paula Wiseman book.

I’ve just sent in a loose proposal for a companion book to another novel I have already published.

Loyal readers of your blog know your philosophy of celebrating in the form of dinner out or a dance after write-a-thons. Give us your top 5 songs on a playlist for a celebratory dance or the menu for a celebratory dinner out.

What a fun question!
Here are a list of songs that I just shared with my WIFYR Boot Camp class, in no particular order:

I recently had a sparkling conversation with 11-year-old children’s book reviewer, Erik Weibel, aka Erik the Great. Some may consider Erik too young to be considered a professional book reviewer, but stay tuned. His awesome accomplishments, discerning eye and interesting opinions absolutely freshen the conversation about writing.

A very cool fifth grader who attends public school in Pennsylvania, Erik is the kind of boy who is equally comfortable in a suit or tee-shirt. “Especially ones with funny sayings!” he says. Instead of watching TV, he spends much of his time on his popular blog, http://www.ThisKidReviewsBooks.com. Not only does he review novels appropriate for his age and younger, he saves one day of the week to celebrate Perfect Picture Book Fridays, and on Thursdays, he interviews Creative Kid Writers! He’s a contributing writer for the Upper Bucks Free Press and you can find this 11-year-old reviewer’s presence throughout the social media. Erik is also an up-and-coming writer. He’s drafted a 9300-word fantasy chapter book called, The Adventures of Tomato and Pea: A Bad Idea.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I wondered how many books he’s read or reviewed and he shared this story.

ERIK: Our school takes part in an Accelerated Reader Program where you read a book, take a test and get points. In my school, the goal for a fifth grader for all year is 50 points. As of today I have 1361 points.

Sue: But what about for your blog?

ERIK: I have no idea. People ask me this a lot. I started to keep track on my blog of the books I read because I read a lot more than I review. As of today, April 25th, for the month, I have 23 books on the list and I don’t always keep track of the picture books or comics I read. I read a lot and it’s hard to keep track.

Sue: I’m in awe of you, Erik, of your passion for literature, and the amount of time you spend reviewing books. There are a zillion other activities in which 11-year-old boys typically spend their time, but you prefer books.

ERIK: I have always loved books and was with them since I was a toddler. I started reading pretty early. My parents don’t watch a lot of TV so books, especially comic books, were very fun for me. I wasn’t introduced to videogames until age 8 when I asked for a “LEGO Indiana Jones videogame” for Christmas (and got it), but I didn’t have a consol, and so my parents got my sister and I a Wii. 

Sue: Let’s talk about your process as a kid reviewer. Do you believe you create unique reviews? For writers and for your readers, why is your perspective different?

ERIK: I think mostly because I am a kid, and authors usually have adults review their book(s), and I provide what a kid thinks about the book. Sometimes I see things in a story an adult won’t think is cool or funny, but as a kid, I do.

Sue: What do you look for in a story that elevates it above others? Conversely, what turns you off immediately?

ERIK: There are a bunch of things that really get my interest. Setting, characters, plot, even illustrations.

I think a book that really makes you be able to imagine you are in the story is the best.

Sue: At age 11, you instinctively get John Gardner’s idea of the Fictive Dream and its importance in a reader’s experience. So cool.

Erik: I also like books that teach you something without you knowing it. I like a lot of historical fiction because of that. A story that has an awesome character that I REALLY like (it doesn’t even have to be the main character) is also going to be one I really enjoy.

Cursing and over the top violence are immediate turn-offs for me. If a book has a lot of mistakes, it really bugs me. Sometimes if a book starts off way too slow it’s hard to keep going. Most of the time I read the whole book anyway, but it isn’t as enjoyable as I would like.

Sue: We writers strive to create unforgettable characters. What makes a character unforgettable to you?

ERIK: Great acts of something (kindness, heroism, etc), complete changes (for the better), unusual things about him/her (manners, speech, etc.), a kid who really believes in him/herself and/or being a person I’d want to be like or friends with.

Sue: I’m going to tape that answer to my laptop! I notice that you also review self-published books. What is your opinion of them? Do you see any changes in them since the advent of ebooks and the proliferation of easy book production—i.e. quality, level of editing, etc.

ERIK: I think self-published books are a great way to get your book out there. I read a lot of self-published books where I think the book is as good, if not better, than the traditionally published ones I read. On the other hand, I read a lot of self-published books that you can tell haven’t gone through an editor. I find a lot of mistakes – errors, typos, holes in the plot, etc. I hate to read a self-published book FULL of mistakes (a little is fine – nobody is perfect!)

Sue: Who are your favorite MG Authors? PB Writers?

ERIK: MG – Matt Myklusch, Rick Riordan, Brandon Mull, Michelle Isenhoff, Timothy Davis, Tom Angleberger, Gordon Korman, Jude Watson, Jerry Spinelli, Michael Buckley, Nick Bruel, Brian Jacques…(I can go on and on). Pretty much whenever a book by any of these people come out, I run to get it.
PB – Eileen Spinelli, Mo Willems, Susanna Leonard Hill, Sandra Boynton, Alex Latimer, Nick Bruel (again). Again, when I hear about a new book coming out by these people, I want to get it!

Sue: You’ve told me you want to become a writer. Which author would you pick as your mentor and why?

ERIK: Michelle Isenhoff, because she has given me writing lessons before and has been a kind of mentor to me already and Matt Myklusch because he’s awesome and nice and Rick Riordan because that would be awesome (and who wouldn’t want him as a mentor?) and…

Sue: I’m sure all of them would love to have you for a student. If you could pick any author in all of time to interview, who would it be and why?

ERIK: Rick Riordan because that would be totally awesome and I would LOVE it if that happened (although I might faint). I once got to meet him at a book signing and he was SO nice. I told him I wrote a book review blog and I loved his books. He asked me if I had any questions for him and I did. I had a whole list – and I forgot ALL OF THEM! I was so nervous! I blogged about it and Mr. Riordan must have read it because he mentioned it in his blog and told me the answer to one of my questions! I’d also pick Brian Jacques, but sadly he passed away in 2010. His Redwall series is my favorite series of all.

Sue: I have a feeling some day readers might faint to be mentored by you. Reading as much as you do, what trends do you see in the Kid Lit market?

ERIK: Messages about bullying and friendships and being yourself. These are great messages to have in stories and I’m glad there are more books about these topics. There’s also a lot of magic stories, not that I don’t like them, but there are a bunch.

Sue: Speaking of bullies and friendships, what do your classmates think of your blog and your enjoyment of reading?

ERIK:Most kids I know think it’s pretty cool that I have a blog. I’ve had friends give me things to post that they wrote or drew. I haven’t had anyone be mean about it, but I also don’t really brag about it or anything like that.

Sue: Erik, you are clearly a thoughtful young man and reviewer, which is making me a bit nervous about this interview. So. . . what do you think of my questions?

ERIK: They were really fun! (seriously) I think it is so cool that people actually want to hear/read what I say.

Sue: I have a feeling your answers will result in an uptick in the number of your followers. We adult writers clearly have something to learn from you.

NOTE: I asked Erik to come up with his own question and here it is:

According to popular belief, you are not actually an eleven-year-old kid but an alien. Is this true? If so, can you say “Hello there! My name is Erik! How are you?” in their language?

ERIK: No, this is not true. I am really an eleven-year-old kid, but I went to the alien planet Zorggagonxz. And yes, I can say “Hello there! My name is Erik!” in Zorggagonxzi.

Didfagvi fijigf! Sdgln pgiffk dsgfi Zerikk!

I know it’s different from “Erik”, but that’s how they say it in Zorggagonxzian.

Sue: I’ve thoroughly enjoyed talking to you, Zerikk. But before we end, and since there may be some agents and editors reading, want to pitch your book?

ERIK: Sure! For years the evil villain Wintergreen has tried to destroy super crime-stopper, Tomato, and his sidekick, Pea, and take over planet Oarg. In a plan gone wrong, Wintergreen and his gang tangle with Tomato and his friends in a runaway rocket ship that crashes on a strange planet called EAR-TH. Follow this brawling bunch of aliens as they try to get along, survive all the dangers on the strange planet, and find a way to get back to Oarg.

Sue: Is there anything else you’d like to ask?

ERIK: Gfdvn dfzj fogpd?

Sue: I’ll have to get back to you on that.

**Note: Because of Erik’s age, This Kid Reviews Books is monitored and maintained by his parents. All social media sites are registered to his parents. However, all content on and design of his site and social media sites is by Erik unless otherwise noted.**